MEASURE TO AVERT A THIRD SHUTDOWN IS PASSED IN HOUSE

By JERRY GRAY

Published: January 26, 1996

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25—
House Republicans and the White House agreed today on a deal that would provide 45 days of spending for parts of the Government that are still without a permanent budget and free enough money to allow most foreign aid programs to continue for the rest of the fiscal year.

The House approved the temporary spending measure this evening by a vote of 371 to 42, after rejecting a Democratic effort to restore money for education.

In the Senate, where a vote is scheduled for Friday, Democrats warned today that they too would try to restore education money. But they are not expected to prevail.

If the full measure is approved in the Senate, as is considered likely, a third Government shutdown would be averted.

As Congress concentrated on efforts to keep the Government open, disagreements emerged about efforts to prevent it from defaulting on its debt after March 1, when it is expected to meet its $4.9 trillion limit on borrowing.

Senate Democrats, impatient with Republican plans to wait until next month to deal with the issue, said this evening that they also intended to introduce an amendment to the temporary spending measure that would raise the debt limit without conditions. With Republicans holding a 53-to-46 majority in the Senate, that amendment is unlikely to pass as well.

Speaker Newt Gingrich has said that House Republicans will vote to give the Administration a 30-day extension on the debt limit, but only if it accepts some of the Republicans' legislative agenda on balancing the budget and cutting taxes.

That notion brought an emphatic rejection from the Administration today.

"We're now at the stage where we do not want to get bogged down in a long process of negotiation or create an addition to the debt limit that would very well become a legislative Christmas tree along the way," said Leon E. Panetta, the White House chief of staff. "We want to get the debt limit extended."

The temporary spending deal was announced in late afternoon after House Republican leaders had spent most of the day negotiating with the White House, the Senate and some of their own petulant rank-and-file.

The White House signaled its acceptance in a terse, two-paragraph statement from Mr. Panetta.

"We have reached an agreement on a bill that the President can sign if it comes to his desk," he said.

"The President still believes, however, that governing by continuing resolution is the wrong way for Congress to exercise its fiscal responsibilities."

Twice in the last three months parts of the Federal Government have been shut down for lack of agreement on all necessary spending bills for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. The current spending measure expires at midnight on Friday and if another is not in place, about a third of the Government would be forced to close again.

Wrangling between the Congressional Republicans and the Clinton Administration, and among Republicans themselves, has delayed the spending measures and polls show the Republicans are suffering as a result.

House Republicans made a last-minute concession in the temporary spending bill to try to avoid opposition in the Senate, backing off an anti-abortion provision.

A bloc of House members opposed to abortion rights had insisted on banning the use of any foreign aid dollars for international population control activities. But the final version of the bill included Senate language that would allow such appropriations if they are authorized before July 1. If authorizations are not made by then, money for population assistance would be limited to 65 percent of last year's $548 million appropriation, or about $360 million.

Another provision in the bill would prohibit the use of Federal money for embryo research. One official said the Administration had accepted the restrictions after checking with the Department of Health and Human Services and finding that such a ban would not affect any pending or planned Federal research.

In a swipe at the Administration, the Republicans included in the bill a restriction prohibiting "excessive travel by Cabinet level secretaries." That provision was prompted by travel controversies involving the Energy Secretary, Hazel R. O'Leary, and the Commerce Secretary, Ronald H. Brown. The bill exempts the Secretaries of State and Defense, the Director of Central Intelligence and the United Nations Ambassador.

Facing the midnight Friday deadline for a temporary spending bill, Mr. Gingrich and the rest of the House Republican leadership spent the last several days in a frantic effort to draw up a plan that would win the support of both a White House intent on protecting its priorities and conservative Republicans anxious to push forward with their political revolution.

The plan that the Republicans offered today, the Balanced Budget Downpayment Act, backs away from the party's threat to eliminate some of President Clinton's most cherished programs: the Americorps national service program, a program to add more police officers nationwide and a drug prevention program.

But the Republicans pressed ahead with their plans to kill the Office of Technology Assessment, the Bureau of Mines and a dozen other programs, most of them dealing with education and already targeted for elimination by the Administration.

The bill would provide spending until March 15 for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, State, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development, and for the Federal court system and various independent agencies, at the same level as last year's budgets.

The Departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services, as well as Interior and its related agencies, would also receive money until March 15, but at 75 percent of their 1995 levels.

Photo: Speaker Newt Gingrich, at the head of the table, conferredyesterday with other House Republican leaders on a temporary spending plan. The Republicans and the Clinton Administration agreed on a measure, which would finance parts of the Government for 45 more days. (Paul Hosefros/The New York Times)(pg. A12)